Our own Aatma (inner self) is our friend and enemy according to Shrimad Bhagawad Geeta

Our own Aatma (inner Self) is our friend and enemy according to Shrimad Bhagawad Geeta

|| OM Shri Paramaatmane Namah ||

In this temporary and perishable world, only our Aatma can be our friend and and only our Aatma can be our enemy. All other relations are illusory and always changing. In Shrimad Bhagawad Geeta, Bhagawan Shri Krishn says that one should uplift their own Aatma (inner self) and make it our friend. Let us study various Shlok (verses) of Shrimad Bhagawad Geeta that explain this concept.

Let a man raise / lift himself by his own Self alone, let him not debase / lower himself; for this Self (Atman) alone is the friend of oneself (if he raises himself) otherwise Self alone is his foe / enemy (if he lowers down himself).

Since the Soul (Aatma - inner self) enshrined in a man is his friend as well as foe, it is binding on a man to lift himself by his own effort rather than degrade himself.

It is man’s duty to work for the salvation of his Soul.

He must not tempt him to damnation, for the embodied Soul is both his friend and enemy. Let us now see, in Krishn’s words, when the Self is a friend and when an adversary.

The Self (Aatman) is the friend of the self for him who has conquered himself (his own physical body, mind and intellect) by the Self, but to the unconquered self, the Self poses like an external foe / enemy.

The Self is a friend to the man who has overcome his mind and senses, but he is an enemy to one who has failed to do so.

To the man who has vanquished his mind and senses, the Soul within is a friend, but to the man who has not subdued his mind and senses, he is an enemy. In the fifth and sixth verses Krishn thus insists repeatedly that a man should redeem his Self by his own effort. He must not degrade him, because the Self is a friend. Besides him, besides the Self, there is neither any friend nor any enemy. It is so because, if a man has restrained his mind and senses, his Soul acts as a friend and brings him the highest good. But, if a man’s mind and senses are not restrained, his Soul turns into an enemy that drags him to re- birth in lower forms of life and to endless misery. Men are fond of saying, “I am Soul.” So there is nothing for us to worry about. We cite evidence from the Geeta itself. Isn’t it said there, we ask, that weapons cannot pierce and fire cannot burn and wind cannot wither the Self? He, the deathless, immutable and universal, is therefore me. Believing so, we pay little heed to the warning in the Geeta that this Soul within us can also descend to an inferior, degraded level. Fortunately, however, he can also be saved and elevated; and Krishn has made known to Arjun the action which is worthy of being done and which leads the Soul to absolution.

Thus, one can make their own Aatma (inner self) as their friend or fore. Only the relationship with our own Aatma is constant (because only Aatma is the truth - Sanatan - eternal). Own our behavior can either uplift our own Aatma or degrade our own Aatma (inner self). It is really easy and beneficial to uplift our own Aatma. For this we have to give up vices (demonic qualities) and acquire virtues (divine qualities).